The NFL, UFC, and NBA want changes to the rules of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedowns to speed up the process of removing illegal sports streams.
The letter to United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) says that the sports industry is losing around $28 billion each year because people who watch illegal streams don’t have a reason to switch to paid streams or subscriptions.
The NFL, NBA, and UFC want to rewrite the laws for fast DMCA takedowns.
Sports organizations believe the US Patent and Trademark Office works too slowly when taking down illegal livestreams and want to rewrite the law to make the process faster.
The NFL, NBA, and UFC are looking to inject some urgency into the DMCA to have the law shut down illegal livestreams sooner.
The sports organizations believe that the law needs to define specifically how quickly a DMCA takedown notice should take effect, according to a letter they sent to the USPTO.
DMCA was signed during the Clinton administration in 1998 and specified that takedown notices be processed “expeditiously,” as written in Section 512 of the act.
In the letter sent to the USPTO, dated August 23rd, the NFL, NBA, and UFC urge the government to change the “expeditiously” verbiage to “instantaneously or near-instantaneously.”
When one watches an NFL game streaming on YouTube TV, it’s generally over in a little over three hours.
If one were to look for an out-of-market stream of a game and find one not authorized by the NFL, it probably would finish before a DMCA takedown gets completed.
It is what the sports organizations are arguing.
“This would be a relatively modest and non-controversial update to the DMCA and be included in the broader reforms considered by Congress or addressed separately,” the letter from the NFL, NBA, and UFC reads.
It also points out that online service providers take hours or even days before removing content in response to takedown notices.
The organizations also want to see online service providers implement user verifications before allowing livestream broadcasts, which they believe could stop illegal sports streams stemming from newly made user accounts.
It specifically calls out people using their smartphone camera to capture footage from a TV screen and stream it live.
Additionally, the letter cites that the “global sports industry is losing up to $28 billion in additional potential annual revenue” since those who watch pirated streams continue to view them successfully and have no reason to switch to a, well, expensive paid stream or subscription.
The NFL, NBA, and UFC say some live streams look “indistinguishable from the legitimate feed,” The organizations are reckoning with a new technological era where live streams get done easier than ever, never imagined in 1998.
Some companies, like YouTube, seem to take videos down faster than others.
Takedowns get abused by corporations as well. While the three sports organizations focus on video streaming, DMCA takedowns don’t just affect the entertainment space.
For instance, small online clothing resellers have dealt with manufacturers sending takedowns under the guise of IP infringement, so they don’t have to compete with lightly used and inexpensive clothing.
If takedowns occurred “instantaneously,” many businesses could shut down quickly with no easy way to reopen.
While the NFL, NBA, and UFC would love the law to change instantly. Right now, all they possess is a letter to the USPTO, so they’ll have to wait for the government to take action for a long while.
